Crimea Votes For Secession

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The people of Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation yesterday. Not a surprising result given the demography and history of Crimea as well as the presence of Russian security forces in country. The US and EU condemned the election not as fraudulent but as illegal and promised to impose sanctions in retaliation. I guess that was what Secretary Kerry was referring to?

People interviewed by the Associated Press indicated part of their motivation was to get away from being ruled by the people of Western Ukraine whom they regarded as dangerous.

Some Crimea residents backing secession said they feared the new Ukrainian government that took over when President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month will oppress them.

“It’s like they’re crazy Texans in western Ukraine. Imagine if the Texans suddenly took over power (in Washington) and told everyone they should speak Texan,” said Ilya Khlebanov, a voter in Simferopol.

Unfortunately we don’t have to imagine we lived it for eight years, but I digress.

Contrary to US propaganda many in Eastern Ukraine genuinely don’t like nor identify with Western Ukrainians, they literally don’t speak the same language. Which is one of the reasons why the US/EU pushing for an overthrow of the Russian backed and democratically elected president was near guaranteed to lead to this kind of chaos. Not that you would learn that from seeing US media.

But what’s done is done, the question is will Russia advance further into Eastern Ukraine?

Crimea Votes For Secession

The people of Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation yesterday. Not a surprising result given the demography and history of Crimea as well as the presence of Russian security forces in country. The US and EU condemned the election not as fraudulent but as illegal and promised to impose sanctions in retaliation. I guess that was what Secretary Kerry was referring to?

People interviewed by the Associated Press indicated part of their motivation was to get away from being ruled by the people of Western Ukraine whom they regarded as dangerous.

Some Crimea residents backing secession said they feared the new Ukrainian government that took over when President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month will oppress them.

“It’s like they’re crazy Texans in western Ukraine. Imagine if the Texans suddenly took over power (in Washington) and told everyone they should speak Texan,” said Ilya Khlebanov, a voter in Simferopol.

Unfortunately we don’t have to imagine we lived it for eight years, but I digress.

Contrary to US propaganda many in Eastern Ukraine genuinely don’t like nor identify with Western Ukrainians, they literally don’t speak the same language. Which is one of the reasons why the US/EU pushing for an overthrow of the Russian backed and democratically elected president was near guaranteed to lead to this kind of chaos. Not that you would learn that from seeing US media.

But what’s done is done, the question is will Russia advance further into Eastern Ukraine?

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader